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Wednesday 13 December 2017

Letter 44, Volume 5: Blueshift Review (Charles Soule, Joelle Jones)


Up ‘til now Charles Soule’s lesser writing efforts could only be found in his blander-than-bland Marvel work but now it’s unfortunately crept into his best ongoing and creator-owned title, Letter 44. Take the word “blue” and letter “f” out of Blueshift and you’ve got an accurate description of this fifth volume’s quality!

If, like me, you were hoping for the next instalment of the story, slow your roll because this ain’t that! Instead we get an entire book of needless, utterly boring backstory for each of the characters. Ever wonder how the Clarke’s crew were individually recruited? Me neither! But here you go anyway. 

It’s essentially the same rubbish each time with some government stooge rocking up with a mysterious offer and getting rebuffed before the character capitulates. God, they’re such a tedious chore to slog through. Not one is in the least bit entertaining nor is any of the new information worth knowing or adds anything to the overall story.

I thought the alien Builders’ issue about their origins could be good as we know almost nothing about them and they play a key role in the plot but even that was a let-down. Nothing much was revealed and what little there was turned out to be boring and unsatisfyingly vague.

This whole book is absolutely pointless - one big nothing! I’d recommend fans skip this filler volume entirely (or get it free from the liberry so you haven’t wasted anything but your time) and wait for the next one instead. It’s especially disappointing as this used to be one of my favourite titles after those strong first three volumes. After the mediocre fourth book, I’d hoped this would be a return to form but instead Blueshift turned out to be the dullest addition to the series so far – Letter 44 gets worse with each passing volume.

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